contact 1 2012 - ericsson · empowerment centre in nigeria “we want to reach out to more women”...

How it works: Tide turning against piratesMPLS

OREOLUWA SOMOLU, FOUNDER OF THE WOMEN’S TECHNOLOGY EMPOWERMENT CENTRE IN NIGERIA

“We want to reach out to more women” pages 14–15 page 5 pages 32–34

Contact#1 • 2012 The magazine for Ericsson employees

pages 16–25

pages 16–25

It’s all in the mixManaged Services boosted by employees’ diversity

SMS saves lives

PAGE 12

New dawn

news

9 An exchange program that increases effi ciency 10 Inside the home of the future 11 Find your way around a building using new location-based services 12 Lena the SMS Lifesaver13 The chocolate-bar mobile that looks good enough to eat13 Compete and win!

plus... 4 Have your say 5 How MPLS works30 Back to 1982: installing cables in Mexico 32 Sinking the network pirates with legal content 36 Test your general knowledge – compete against yourself

FIRST PAGE Members working with Managed Services in region Northern Europe & Central Asia and region North America. From left to right: Bill Pletcher, Krishna Jyothi Boppana, Steven Elbert, Anna Palmgren, Yekaterina Galitskaya and Hans Rendbæk. Photos: Håkan Lindgren and Getty Images

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Ericsson’s fi rst appearance at the world’s largest consumer electronics fair

2012 International CES

Pages 26-29

theme – diverity 16 Diversity – appearances can be deceiving 18 Anna Palmgren, Head of Managed Services Sales Engagement at Region Northern Europe & Central Asia: “I’ve defi nitely developed more when I’ve worked in mixed teams”23 How Ericsson is selling itself to students23 Five students explain why diversity is important 25 Hans Vestberg, Ericsson’s President and CEO: “This is just the beginning”

Truthfully, how often do you get to be part of something at work that feels like a real milestone? Moments when you see that your company is

on its way into a completely new era? Not that often, right? But at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas re-cently, that was exactly the feeling I got.

When our President and CEO Hans Vestberg took to the main stage and talked about the Networked Society, so clearly capturing the attention of his audience, I was fi lled with the realization that we had really arrived and were doing something very special.

The positive reactions in the media and the extensive buzz on Twitter after his appea-rance bear witness to the attention it gene-rated. It feels like this was the day we con-fi rmed for ourselves and our customers that Ericsson is an ICT company that matters.

The success wasn’t something we could take for granted. CES is a big, dazzling show, in many ways pure entertainment. Presenta-tions and product launches compete with stand-up comedians and musical perfor-mances. We had been invited as keynote speakers, as the fi rst telecom vendor in the history of the event, to make an impression. To do that, we had to rely on our extensive experience and our vision of the Networked Society.

But even if I felt some vague doubts a few months beforehand, those feelings vanished as soon as we met to plan the presentation. There we sat, colleagues from around the world, in a conference room in Kista, and it was impossible to deny that Ericsson had a very strong message and that CES was a great opportunity to get it out.

On arrival in Las Vegas, the excitement was tangible, especially from our colleagues from North America, Japan and Germany, who all understood the positive eff ects their presence would have in their home markets. The cooperation between representatives from the business units, regions and group functions was exemplary. The collaboration around the Connected Me demo, where you eff ectively use your own body as the con-nection between two devices, was brilliant. All told, CES served as a reminder of what we can achieve when we work across our national and unit boundaries.

Helena Norrman, Head of Group Function Communications

Editor Jenz Nilsson, [email protected], +46 8 588 331 38 Assistant editor David Calla han, [email protected], +46 8 588 331 84 Publisher Helena Norrman, [email protected] In charge of internal channels Christine Cornelius, [email protected] Reporters in this issue Sophie Bennett , sophie.bennett @jgcommunication.se, David Callahan, [email protected], David Francisco, [email protected], Anders Jinne klint, [email protected], Michael Masoliver, [email protected], Sonora Ocampo, [email protected], Benny Ritzén, [email protected], Jonathan Rothwell, [email protected] Art director Carola Pilarz, carola.�pilarz@�jgcommunication.se Graphics Svenska Grafi kbyrån Address Contact, Box 49031, 100 28 Stockholm Fax + 46 8 522 915 99 E-mail contact.�[email protected] Print V-TAB, Vimmerby Contact online htt p://internal.ericsson.com/page/hub_inside/news/magazines/kontakten/index.html 341189

Contact

Enjoy Ericsson Review on your Android tablet or iPad and keep up-to-date

on the latest R&D and technology breakthroughs. To download the app,

go to the Ericsson Review page and select the link for your device.

ericsson.com/review

5

...ABOUT MPLS?Have you been asked ...

5

MPLS Multi-protocol label switching

MPLS uses switching technology to quickly direct IP traffic to the correct destination listed in the IP packets’ destination fields.

MPLS virtual private networks (VPNs)

Pure IP network

MPLS domain

network

The packets take longer to be directed and may reach their destination in a different order. This can affect the quality of the sound, as well as other aspects.

The packets enter the MPLS domain…

The packets enter the IP domain.

One network is connected to another through a tunnel. Operators that have MPLS in their networks can offer VPN services.

omain

LS

e networks (VPNs)

The packets arrive at their destination quicker and in the same order as they were sent.

OFFICE 1

OFFICE 2

TUNNEL

Each router determines the shortest path by which to direct the packets.

…and are assigned labels that describe how they will be directed through that domain.

The router’s main task is to identify the address of the next router. It may also switch labels.

Router

Customer router

Customer router

Label

Sgb.seSource: Ericsson

E-mail us your questions, opini-ons, refl ections or work-related images. We will publish a selec-tion of the material on this page. [email protected]

THE 2011 READERS’ CHOICEHere is the best readers’ picture for 2011, as voted for by Contact readers. The winning photo was taken by Tord Toft from Sweden. He took the photo of a small-boat

harbor in Hudiksvall with the old warehouses in the background. It faced tough competition from the runner-up (picture 8), with only 16 votes separating the two. Cong-ratulations, Tord! A total of 721 readers voted in the competition, and the winner received 113 votes. Much to our delight, every one of the entries received at least one vote. The Contact editorial team would like to thank all those who participated. At the same time, we would like to encourage you to continue sending us your photos. You can do this by e-mailing your picture together with a short comment to: [email protected]

CHALLENGE US!Would you like to test your collea-gues’ knowledge of telecoms?

Get in touch with us at editorial. We would like you to contribute innovative and tricky quizzes for the back pages of the magazine. The rules are simple, read more here: htt p://internal.ericsson.com/page/hub_inside/news/magazines/contact/readers/_quiz.jspEditorial

REGARDING BEST READERS’ PICTUREGreat initiative, good to know how the employees are part of it! Regards,Igor Venegas, Chile

HAVE YOUR SAY!Do the Contact channel survey and help us improve the internal communication. You fi nd it here: htt p://goo.gl/uyOJs

... who immediately aft er comple-ting his education began working as a Radio Network Engineer. Since 2001 his work has involved repairing faults in Orange’s radio network in Austria. Aft er 10 years working on behalf of Alcatel-Lucent, he wanted a change. Based in Vienna, he joined Ericsson as a System Support Engineer on September 1.

How are you sett ling into your new role at Ericsson?

I have great colleagues and enjoy the diversity of my role. We deliver support to Orange Austria and Mobilkom Austria. I have also already helped install a new radio network controller (RNC) in Slovakia.What was your motivation for joining Ericsson?

Although I have a lot of expe-rience with RNCs and radio base stations, I wanted to learn more. Working for a vendor and network operator like Alcatel-Lucent has been interesting, but it’s exciting to have the chance to share my knowledge and experience with a leading ICT player like Ericsson.

... to Ericsson, Martin Dupp

I took this picture recently, on my way to work in Kista. It was a cold winter morning and the photo was taken with my Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini. Vincent Huang A, Sweden

Source: Intranet

4

Welcome … PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

SSouurrcece: : Innttraanneet

80... percent of 125 Ericsson employees believe that NEST – The Networked Society Forum, held in Hong Kong in November, has enhanced the perception of Ericsson as a key ICT player.

Web poll

A foggy morning close to the Ericsson office in Gurgaon. Taken with my Sony Ericsson C903. Fatima Pais, India

A photo of Sydney Harbor Bridge, taken during work recently.

Aruran Kandasamy, Australia

WRITE TO US! What would you like to discuss? What could we improve? E-mail: [email protected]

Have your sayReaders’ pictures

XxxxxxxxXxxxxxxx

6 76

Work experience for the bossPett er Järtby, Head of Group IT and Test Environments, takes calls from employees while on a visit to the IT Service Desk. The idea was for him to gain a deeper insight into how the support staff work, and what kinds of IT-related problems they have to deal with. Järtby got to learn all about the support functions and tools that are available, and to listen in on typical calls being taken. Then he got to help out himself. Read the interview with Pett er Järtby on page 8.

3.05pm/December 15/Ericsson IT Support, Stockholm

PHOTO: PER MYREHED

7

Delivering telecom-munications equipment through some of the most inhospitable ter-rain on the planet is dif-fi cult enough – cutt ing costs and emissions at the same time is what Ericsson likes to call a “true” success story.

SMART TR ANSPORTwMarios Pettersson is used to tackling tough challenges. As Regional Distribution Manager at Region Northern Europe & Central Asia (RECA), he is respon-sible for developing new distribution solutions for customers in parts of Mongolia, Russia and other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States, while reducing costs and carbon emissions at the same time.

Mongolia’s extreme climate posed a unique challenge. In winter, parts of the country can get as much as three me-ters of snow, and tempe-ratures can

dip to -50C, or colder. In summer, it can be hotter than 50C.

Up until recently, the standard distribu-tion solution involved transporting goods from the Ericsson Distribu-tion Center (EDC) in Sweden by land or air. This was clearly not an effi cient model, which is why RECA decided to explore a new one using rail systems in combina-tion with the EDC in Shanghai, China. The Mongolian operator

MobiCom, headquar-tered in the capital city Ulan Bator, was selected as a pilot customer.

A new modelBjörn Gustafsson, Senior Customer Project Manager at Ericsson, and part of the team that developed the new model, says: “The whole distribution solution was shaky in the begin-ning, but we had an open dialog with Mobi-Com and fi nally convin-ced them that using rail

would be better.”The shipment of

more than 100 boxes measured 27 cubic me-ters in total and fi t into a single 12m container. According to Pettersson, the new distribution method enabled signi-fi cant cost savings as well as large reduction in emissions. Gustafsson says: “The rail solution meant better lead times and was truly the best solution. It became a true success story.” ■ Benny Ritzén

Delivering telecom-munications equipment through some of the most inhospitable ter-rain on the planet is dif-fi cult enough – cutt ing costs and emissions at the same time is what Ericsson likes to call a “true” success story.

SMART TR ANSPORTwwMarios Pettersson is used to tackling tough challenges. As Regional Distribution Manager at Region Northern Europe & Central Asia(RECA), he is respon-sible for developing new distribution solutions for customers in parts of Mongolia, Russiaand other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States, while reducing costs and carbon emissions at thesame time.

Mongolia’s extreme climate posed a unique challenge. In winter, parts of the country can get as much as three me-ters of snow, and tempe-ratures can

dip to -50C, or colder. In summer, it can be hotter than 50C.

Up until recently, the standard distribu-tion solution involved transporting goods from the Ericsson Distribu-tion Center (EDC) in Sweden by land or air. This was clearly not an effi cient model, which is why RECA decided toexplore a new one using rail systems in combina-tion with the EDC in Shanghai, China. The Mongolian operator

MobiCom, headquar-tered in the capital city Ulan Bator, was selected as a pilot customer.

A new modelBjörn Gustafsson, Senior Customer Project Manager at Ericsson, and part of the team that developed the new model, says: “The whole distribution solution was shaky in the begin-ning, but we had anopen dialog with Mobi-Com and fi nally convin-ced them that using rail

would be better.”The shipment of

more than 100 boxesmeasured 27 cubic me-ters in total and fi t into a single 12m container. According to Pettersson, the new distribution method enabled signi-fi cant cost savings as well as large reduction in emissions. Gustafsson says: “The rail solution meant better lead times and was truly the best solution. It became a true success story.” ■ Benny Ritzén

SEND US YOUR SUGGESTIONS! Is there something you want to tell us about? E-mail: [email protected]

Emma Karlsson, Soft -ware Development Manager at Business Unit Networks, spent four weeks in 2011 commuting between Stockholm and a factory fl oor two hours away as part of an exchange program to stimulate collaboration and greater effi ciency.

LEAN AND AGILE wThe Hardware Design Goes Supply program, spon-sored by Development Unit Radio (DURA) at BU Networks, is a mix of theory and practical on-the-job-training that aims to increase under-standing of how design impacts production and supply.

Engineers, including designers, technical

leaders and project managers, spend four weeks at a production facility in

either Katrineholm or Kumla in Sweden and follow their own designs though all the stages of the supply process.

Better understanding“Before I got involved with this program, I didn’t know much about the supply side of the business,” says Karlsson, who manages a team of software developers who design features for radio base stations such as the RBS 6000. “Now I have a much better under-standing of the conse-quences of releasing or

not releasing a piece of software.”

As part of the pro-gram, Karlsson and three colleagues traveled weekly to Kumla, about 200km west of Stock-holm, to meet with everyone from top man-agement to the people on the factory fl oor.

“We went through all of the areas of supply,” she says. “I got involved in production tests and their strategies for hand-ling new products, and also discussed how we can collaborate more in the future.” One result was a list of improve-ment areas that were identifi ed by both the development and supply organizations.

Håkan Elveljung, Director of Hardware

Design at DURA, says that Hardware Design Goes Supply is just one of the several pilot activities that are part of the unit’s Lean and Agile transformation.

Efficient supply“The explosion of mobile broadband has high-lighted the importance of an effi cient supply chain. Our challenge is to change from a sequen-tial design fl ow to more cross-functional teams with product responsibi-lity from the beginning to the end,” says Elveljung.

Cross-functional acti-vities within supply have yielded results but Elve-ljung emphasizes that the change journey is only just beginning.■ David Francisco

Micael Edvinsson (far left ) at Ericsson’s production facility in Kumla guides a group of designers including Zhigang Liao, Gunnar Säfvenberg and Olof Engdahl through the production of an RBS 6000.

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LEGO builds Minecraft GAMINGwSince its beta release in 2009, the open-source simulation game Minecraft has sold more than four million units. Soon, a selection of Minecraft ’s virtual creations will be recreated using LEGO. It took only 48 hours aft er the initial announcement for more than 10,000 supporters to sign up for the project on LEGO’s developer-site, CUUSOO.

Source: Gamasutra, LEGO

NTT DOCOMO bets with chips MOBILE PLATFORMSwThe Japanese operator NTT DOCOMO has announced that it will form a joint venture with Fujitsu, Fuji-tsu Semiconductor, NEC, Panasonic and Samsung to develop and sell semicon-ductors for mobile devices. Communication Platform Planning, as the company will be called, will focus on developing compact, feature-rich, low-power chipsets for LTE and LTE-Advanced devices.

To Ulan Bator by train P

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By using rail systems and a distribution center in Shanghai to reach customers in Central Asia, Ericsson achieved massive cost savings and emission reductions.

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Operator blazes past LTE competition SPEEDwDuring the launch of its LTE net-work, Finnish operator DNA hired two stuntmen who demonstrated the diff erence in speed bet-ween 2G and 4G services by lighting traditional advent candles fi rst with a match and then again with the aid of an aerosol accelerant.

... Pett er Järtby, CIO and Head of Common Functions.

What did you learn from your recent visit to the IT Service Desk at HP in Stockholm?

“I wanted to experience fi rst-hand how we are sup-porting our end users by taking a few calls myself. One call I observed was about a potential virus att ack and the agent’s knowledge and patience really impressed me.”

What can end users expect in the future?

“We are evolving from a telephony and e-mail-ba-sed kind of support to one that includes live web chat and self-service ticketing. We expect to save time and money, mitigate langu-age problems and provide more value. In general, we are trying to listen to the specifi c needs of our end users and provide more individualized support.“

How is your unit helping Ericsson to be a leading ICT player?

“A central part of our IT and Test Environments strategy is improving our ICT capabilities and solu-tions. We are strengthe-ning our IT roles within the company and aligning our internal portfolio with “market ready” off erings. By working closely with the business units and regions, we are also ensuring that we contribute to Ericsson’s top and bott om lines. This change will not happen overnight, however.”■ David Francisco

Hello…

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Karlsson

IT Service desk facts SUPPORTw

▶ There are support centers in Bulgaria, China, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Brazil and Sweden.

▶ Support is proved in 14 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Manda-rin, Arabic, Hindi, Bahasa Indonesia, Italian, Japa-nese, Korean, Portuguese, Swedish and Thai.

11

Mapping the great indoors The next generation of location-based services is here. And they have an emphasis on helping the user to navigate in indoor environments. One such service is Ericsson Labs’ Indoor Maps and Positioning.

POSITIONINGwThe re-cently launched Indoor Maps and Positioning service supports mobile-service developers. The service comprises two parts: a map function and a location-based service. Together, these enable developers to de-sign maps and integrate them into Android app-lications to determine the location of a mobile phone on the map.

Wi-FiThe service is based on Wi-Fi technology (see fact box).

Two of the Ericsson Labs engineers behind Indoor Maps and Positio-ning are Karin Woll-brand, Senior Researcher, and Staff an Larsson, Expe-rienced Researcher.

“Our goal is to help

developers create good mobile applications,” Larsson says. “Indoor Maps and Positioning is mainly intended for ser-vices that help end users get from one indoor location to another with the help of maps.”

As an example, Lars-son mentions Ericsson Labs’ Indoor Finder, which was developed to help Ericsson employees in Kista, Sweden, fi nd their way inside the company’s headquar-ters.

Other typical areas of use for Indoor Maps and Positioning are large buildings, such as air-

ports, stadiums, hospi-tals, industrial sites and shopping malls.

Wollbrand points out that Ericsson Labs has only released a test version of the service. So far, a few hundred developers have used the platform, and Erics-son Labs is waiting to receive more feedback from them.

“But interest in

indoor maps and posi-tioning has risen drama-tically in recent times,” she says.

“Many companies are working with it now, and a lot of major players are active in this area. For example, Google recently laun-ched an indoor version of its map function for Android.” ■ Benny Ritzén

1.2... billion apps were downloaded by Android and iOS users around the world between De-cember 25 and 31, which is a record, according to analysis fi rm Flurry.

Source: Mobil.se

Mobile phone predicted 1900 VISIONARYwIn December 1900, US magazine Ladies’ Home Journal published a vision of the next 100 years. Civil engineer John Elfreth Watkins Jr’s predictions included the invention of the mobile phone and that a man in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean would one day be able to call his wife at home in Chicago. Watkins was also right in foreseeing the arrival of the digital camera and television, but his prediction of the extinction of rats, fl ies and mosquitoes was wrong.

Source: The Saturday Evening Post

Swedes break surf record INTERNETwSwedes surfed the internet like never be-fore in December last year. The volume of data traffi c in the country’s broadband networks was 28 percent higher than usual, ac-cording to operator Telia’s surfi ng index. The Swedes also broke the record for social-media usage, which peaked on December 19.

COMMITTEES AT WORK IN BCAM DIALOG SURVEYwHow is your organi-zation working with the recent Dialog results? For Business Unit CDMA Mo-bile Systems (BCAM) so called ‘Dialog Action Committ ees’ provided the best way to engage employees in defi ning and carrying out improvement eff orts.

Crystal Hall, Dialog Prime at BCAM, – the BU’s primary Dialog interface�–

says that the 2010 Dialog survey clearly indicated that employees had a strong interest in helping to defi ne

initiatives for improve-ment. At BCAM, the 2011 focus areas included integration with Erics-son, motivation, IPM experience, as well as

an action plan and framework for leadership engagement.

As part of their work, the commit-tees took responsibility for specifi c programs, including panel discus-sions, team-building events and even

a mini-documentary showing a “day in the life” of BCAM Head, Rima Qureshi.

“The committ ees’ work has given us the opportunity to get programs out there that employees are interested in,” Hall says. “So far, the feedback has been very positive and we expect to continue this work in 2012.”

For more information about this Dialog case contact Crystal Hall: [email protected] ■ David Francisco

Crystal Hall

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Staff an Larsson, Experienced Researcher at Ericsson Labs, shows how the Indoor Maps and Positioning service will make it easier for users to fi nd their way in indoor environments, such as shopping malls.

FOR THE POSITIONING service to work, a building must have a num-ber of Wi-Fi access points. The positions of these points are stored in a database. When you then want to position a user, the application will scan all of the surrounding Wi-Fi access points. The mobile phone then calculates its own position based on the signal strength from the various Wi-Fi points and their stored positions. Read more at: htt ps://labs.ericsson.com/apis/indoor-maps-and-positioning

Karin Wollbrand

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The next generation of location-based services is here. And they have an emphasis on helping the user to navigate in indoor environments. One such service is Ericsson Labs’ Indoor Maps and Positioning.

POSITIONINGwwThe re-cently launched Indoor Maps and Positioning service supports mobile-service developers. Theservice comprises two parts: a map function and a location-based service. Together, these enable developers to de-sign maps and integrate them into Android app-lications to determine the location of a mobile phone on the map.

Wi-FiThe service is based on Wi-Fi technology (see fact box).

Two of the Ericsson Labs engineers behind Indoor Maps and Positio-ning are Karin Woll-brand, Senior Researcher, and Staff an Larsson, Expe-rienced Researcher.

“Our goal is to help

developers create good mobile applications,” Larsson says. “Indoor Maps and Positioning is mainly intended for ser-vices that help end users get from one indoorlocation to another with the help of maps.”

As an example, Lars-son mentions Ericsson Labs’ Indoor Finder, which was developed to help Ericsson employees in Kista, Sweden, fi nd their way inside the company’s headquar-ters.

Other typical areas of use for Indoor Maps and Positioning are large buildings, such as air-

ports, stadiums, hospi-tals, industrial sites and shopping malls.

Wollbrand points out that Ericsson Labs has only released a test version of the service. So far, a few hundred developers have used the platform, and Erics-son Labs is waiting to receive more feedback from them.

“But interest in

indoor maps and posi-tioning has risen drama-tically in recent times,” she says.

“Many companies are working with it now, and a lot of major players are active in this area. For example, Google recently laun-ched an indoor version of its map function forAndroid.” ■ Benny Ritzén

... billion apps were ... b. bibillllioionon an apappppsps w wewerrere downloaded by Android ddowowwnnloloaoadadeedd bbyby AAnAndndrdrooidid and iOS users around aandndd iOOSOS S uussererss aarrouounundnd d the world between De-ththehe wwwoorlldd bbeetwtwweeenen n DDee-cember 25 and 31, which cecememmbbeer 2r 25255 anandnd d 331,1, wwhwhihichch is a record, according toisis as a ra rerececoordrd,d, aaccccocororddiningng tg totoanalysis fi rm Flurry.anannalalyysisisis fifi rfirmrm m FlFlulururryry.y.

Source: Mobil.seSSooururccee: MMoobbill.sse

Mobile phone predicted 1900

VISIONARYwwIn December 1900, US magazine Ladies’ Home Journal publisheda vision of the next 100 years. Civil engineer John Elfreth Watkins Jr’spredictions included the invention of the mobilephone and that a man inthe middle of the Atlantic Ocean would one day be able to call his wife at home in Chicago. Watkins was also right in foreseeing the arrival of the digital camera and television, but his prediction of theextinction of rats, fl ies andmosquitoes was wrong.

Source: The Saturday Evening Post

Swedes break surf record

INTERNETwwSwedes surfedthe internet like never be-fore in December last year. The volume of data traffi cin the country’s broadbandnetworks was 28 percenthigher than usual, ac-cording to operator Telia’s surfi ng index. The Swedes also broke the record for social-media usage, whichpeaked on December 19.

COMMITTEES AT WORK IN BCAM DIALOG SURVEYwwHow is your organi-zation working with the recent Dialogresults? For Business Unit CDMA Mo-bile Systems (BCAM) so called ‘Dialog Action Committ ees’ provided the best way to engage employees in defi ningand carrying out improvement eff orts.

Crystal Hall, Dialog Prime at BCAM, – the BU’s primary Dialog interface�–

says that the 2010 Dialog survey clearly indicated that employees had a strong interest in helping to defi ne

initiatives for improve-ment. At BCAM, the 2011 focus areas included integration with Erics-son, motivation, IPM experience, as well as

an action plan and framework for leadership engagement.

As part of their work, the commit-tees took responsibility for specifi c programs, including panel discus-sions, team-building events and even

a mini-documentary showing a “day in the life” of BCAM Head, Rima Qureshi.

“The committ ees’ work has given us the opportunity to get programs out there that employees are interestedin,” Hall says. “So far, the feedback has been very positive and we expect tocontinue this work in 2012.”

For more information about thisDialog case contact Crystal Hall:[email protected] ■ David Francisco

Crystal Hall

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Staff an Larsson, Experienced Researcher at Ericsson Labs, shows how the Indoor Maps and Positioning service will make it easier for users to fi nd their way in indoor environments, such as shopping malls.

FOR THE POSITIONINGFFOROR TTHEHE PPOOSISITIIONNININGG service to work, a building must have a num-seservrvicice te to wo woork,k, a ba buuilddingng mmusust ht havave e a n numum-ber of Wi-Fi access points. The positions of these points are storedbbeer oof Wf Wi-Wi-FiFi acaccecessss ppoinointsts. TThehe ppososititionons os of tf thehesse ppoiointnts aarere ststororededin a database. When you then want to position a user, the application inn a da daatababaasee. WWhehen n yoyou tu thehenn wawantnt toto pposositiotionn a ua useser, r, ththe ae appplilicatatioion will scan all of the surrounding Wi-Fi access points. The mobile phone wwillill scscanan aall o of tf thehe susurrrrououndndining Wg Wi-Wi-FiFi acaccecessss popoinintsts. TThee mmobobilele phphoonee then calculates its own position based on the signal strength from thhenen cacalclculaulatetes s itsts oownwn ppososititionon babassedd onon tthehe sisigngnalal ststreenggth h frfromom the various Wi-Fi points and their stored positions. Read more at: ththee vavarioriouus W Wi-Wi-FiFi popoinintsts anandd ththeieir sstotorered pd poosititioonsns. RReaeadd mmor at: re at: htt ps://labs.ericsson.com/apis/indoor-maps-and-positioninghhtt tt psps:////lababss.erericscssoson.n.cocom/m/apapis/is/in/indodooror-m-maapsps-aand-d-poposisitiotioniningng

Karin Wollbrand

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A futuristic apartment is open for public vie-wing in the Swedish town of Västerås, giving visitors an early glimp-se of life in 2026. The technological solutions featured here include a smart grid and digital communications with the neighbors.

SMART LIVINGwMunicipal housing company Mi-mer opened the three-bedroom apartment to the public late last year.

VisionaryEva Favaro, Head of Marketing at Mimer, says: “We wanted to learn more about how people will live in the future, so we invited a range of companies and organizations to develop some modern solutions. Many of them are based on existing technology,

but some really are visionary.”

By simply pressing a “going away and coming home” button, you can turn the water and lighting off and on as you come and go. If you have left a window open, you will be sent a text message to inform you. Using your smartphone, you can then turn on the air conditioning and heating when you are on your way home. And if your dishwasher starts to leak while you are away, it will trigger an alarm connected to your mobile phone.

The apartment has many functional featu-res, and Favaro says the entire project has been run with sustainability

in mind.“An important part of

this is the reduction of carbon emissions, which is enabled by the smart grid,” she says. “You can reduce your peak power consumption and en-sure you’re using clean electricity.”

Kitchen helperOne proposed solution that is still only in its visionary stage is the “kitchen helper,” soft-ware for touchscreens

that keeps a check on the contents of your fridge and creates recipes and shopping lists that can be transferred to your smartphone or directly to your local grocery store. The software also enables you to com-municate with your neighbors.

The apartment of the future, the result of the collaboration of 35 part-ners, will be on show for one year. ■ Anders Jinneklint

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The home of the futureThe smart home of the future will include numerous ICT solutions. Here, Mats Wenlöf demonstrates a connected-kitchen concept known as the “Kitchen helper”.

Sustainable city developmentERICSSON is ICT solutions advisor to the Stockholm Royal Seaport – an urban development project in the Swedish capital that, when completed in 2030, will off er 10,000 new homes and 30,000 additional workspaces. Stockholm Royal Seaport is intended to serve as an international model for sustainable city development, and to be climate positive and free from fossil fuels by 2030.

... Leif Johansson, new Chairman of the Board of Directors at Ericsson and former President and CEO of Volvo Group.

What are the most im-portant issues for the board right now?

“Boards do diff erent things. There is the gover-nance part, which I think is very well handled at Erics-son. There is the business review part – making sure that targets are met and programs are executed in the right way. And then we support management in strategic issues.

What are the most sig-nifi cant challenges that Ericsson faces?

“Technology and service leadership, and providing a good setup for our custo-mers.

Industry consolidation also creates challenges. It was fairly predictable that ICT, telephony and information would merge; it is much less predictable where it will end up. Erics-son is part of this process and needs to ensure it ma-kes the right choices. So we have some sharp decisions to make.

“Then there’s the eco-nomic situation; in the short term, I’m reasonably pessimistic about Europe and North America. But at Ericsson, we have the opp-ortunity to break free of the general economic cycle, if we can get customers and subscribers to accept costs, and can provide good services for them.”■ Simon Richardson

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12 13

“When I took the job as CTO, the debate was whether 3G would ever appeal to the mass market. Today, mobile broadband has become a necessity to billions of people.”Ericsson’s departing CTO Håkan Eriksson looks back on his nine years in the role. He will become the Head of Ericsson in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji from February 1.

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700,221 ... the number of ama-teur radio enthusiasts in the US, a record number, according to a survey from September 2011.

Source: The American Radio Relay League (ARRL)

Sharp launches “chocolate” smartphone PRODUCTSwElectronics fi rm Sharp has produced

a smart-phone that looks like a chocolate bar. The phone, which uses the Android 2.3 opera-

ting system, will be made available to subscribers of Japanese mobile operator NTT DOCOMO. It comes with a wireless charger that resembles a box of chocolates.

Source: Ny Teknik

COMPETITIONwHow carefully do you read Contact? The answers to the three questions below can be found in this issue of the magazine.

1. What’s the name of the non-profi t

organization that educa-tes women about the use of ICT in Nigeria?

2. What does MPLS stand for?

3. Who’s in charge of Ericsson’s com-

mon function IT and Test Environment.

Write your answer aft er

each question in an e-mail,

put “competition” in the

subject fi eld and send

your entry to contact.

comments@ericsson.

com by March 30. The

winner will receive a copy

of the Ericsson book

Changing the World. If

we receive several sets

of correct answers, the

name of the winner will be

drawn from a hat. Good

luck!

The winner of the last

competition was Edgar

Adrian Gonzalez, Mexico.

Answers to last month’s

quiz:

1. About 5.5 billion

2. “See you later”

3. Mobile

Sweden, 1979 LOOKING BACKwThis micro-computer-based device, from former Ericsson company SRA Communications, was used to control traffic signals in Karlskrona, Sweden. Attempts had already been made to control the flow of traffic using lights during the 19th century. The first traffic lights in Sweden were installed in the 1920s in Stockholm.

Ericsson’s first delivery of traffic-signaling equipment was to the City of Stockholm in the mid-1930s. This was part of the company’s bid to expand its product portfolio by including equipment for timekeeping; fire alarms; and various types of signaling devices. Source: Centre for Business History

ERICSSON wUnplug! is Ericsson’s mobile broadband webpage, which shows how this technology is bringing about fundamental changes to the internet: http://www.ericsson.com/unplug/

FACEBOOK wThe Ericsson Application Awards This Facebook page contains current information about the international competition for students who are developing mobile applications: http://www.facebook.com/Ericsson.Application.Awards

TWITTER wEricsson sustainability has about 600 followers on Twitter and features links about topics such as corporate responsibility: https://twitter.com/#!/Ericssonsustain

BLOGGAR wThe next web is one of the world’s biggest IT blogs and includes internet-related news from an international perspective: http://thenextweb.com/

Have you come across any thought-provoking blogs or blog posts? Let us know by sending an e-mail to [email protected]

Mobile pay-ments get popular TRENDSwMore than 48 percent of those ques-tioned in a Telia survey in Sweden say that they will make more payments using their mobile phones during the next two years. Almost 30 percent already want to be able to make fi nancial transactions regardless of where they are.

“The fact that so many people plan to use their mobile phones as wallets within the next two years suggests that users see this as a natural step in the development of smart te-lephony,” says Ulrika Steg, Head of Mobility Services Sweden at Telia.

Social media voices

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Source: The American Radio SSoouurccee: TThhee AAmmeeriricacann RRaaddioo Relay League (ARRL)RReRelalayay LLeaeagagugueue (A(ARARRRRLRL)L)

Sharp launches “chocolate” smartphone PRODUCTSwwElectronics fi rm Sharp has produced

a smart-phone thatlooks like a chocolate bar. The phone, which usesthe Android2.3 opera-

ting system, will be made available to subscribers of Japanese mobile operator NTT DOCOMO. It comes with a wireless charger that resembles a box ofchocolates.

Source: Ny Teknik

COMPETITIONwwHow carefully do you read Contact? The answers to the three questions below can be found in this issue of the magazine.

1. What’s the name of the non-profit

organization that educa-tes women about the use of ICT in Nigeria?

2. What does MPLSstand for?

3. Who’s in charge of Ericsson’s com-

mon function IT and Test Environment.

Write your answer after

each question in an e-mail,

put “competition” in the

subject fi eld and send

your entry to contact.

comments@ericsson.

com by March 30. The

winner will receive a copy

of the Ericsson book

Changing the World. If

we receive several sets

of correct answers, the

name of the winner will be

drawn from a hat. Good

luck!

The winner of the last

competition was Edgar

Adrian Gonzalez, Mexico.

Answers to last month’s

quiz:

1. About 5.5 billion

2. “See you later”

3. Mobile

com by March 30 The

Sweden, 1979 SSwSwewedwedededenen, n, 1199797979 9 LOOKING BACKwwwwThis micro-TThiis mimicrro--computer-based device, from ccomompmpututeer-br-babasesed d dedevvicece fe, frofromom former Ericsson company SRA foformrmemer Er ErEricscssssonon ccomompmpananyny SSRARA Communications, was used CCoommmmununicicatatioonsns, w, wawas s ususeded to control traffic signals intoto co conontntrorol t trarafffficc sisigngnalals is innKarlskrona, Sweden. AttemptsKaKarlrlskskroronna, a, SwSwewededenen. A. AttAtteempmptptshad already been made to controlhhadad ad alrlreaeadydy by bebeenen mmamadede ttoo cocontntrorolthe flow of traffic using lightsththee floflowow ow of tf tratraffafficfic uusinsingng lilighghtstsduring the 19th century. The ddudurinringng ththehe 1919th9th ch cenentnturury.y. ThThe e first traffic lights in Swedenffirsrst tt tratraffafficfic lilighghtsts inin Sn SwSwedededenn were installed in the 1920s in wwerere ie insnstatalllleded inin tthehe 11929200s is in n Stockholm. SStotocckhkhoolmm.

Ericsson’s first delivery of ErEricricssssoon’sn’s f firsrstt dedeliliveveryry oof traffic-signaling equipment tratraffafficfic-s-sigignanalilingng eeququipipmmenent nt was to the City of Stockholm inwwawas ts too ththe e CiCityty oof Sf Stotocockhkhololmm ininthe mid-1930s. This was part ofththee mmidid-19-1939300s. s. ThThisis wwasas ps parart t ofofthe company’s bid to expand its thhee coommpapanyny’sy’s bbid d toto eexpxpaandnd itits s product portfolio by including pproroduducuct pt poportfrtfofolioio bby y incnclucluddingng gequipment for timekeeping; fire eequuippmemenent ft fofor tr timmeekekeepepinpingg; ffirere alarms; and various types of alalarmrmsms; a; andnd vd vavarioriouus ts typypepes s ofof signaling devices. ssigngnanalinlingg dedeveviceiceses. Source: Centre for Business HistorySoSoururcece: CCenentrtre fe foror BBususinenessss HHisistooryy

ERICSSONwwUnplug! is Ericsson’smobile broadband webpage, which shows how this technology is bringing about fundamental changes to the internet: http://www.ericsson.com/unplug/

FACEBOOKwwThe Ericsson Application Awards This Facebook page contains current information about the international competition for students who are developing mobile applications: http://www.facebook.com/Ericsson.Application.Awards

TWITTER wwEricsson sustainability has about600 followers on Twitter and features links about topics such as corporate responsibility: https://twitter.com/#!/Ericssonsustain

BLOGGAR wwThe next web is one of the world’s biggest IT blogs and includes internet-related news from an international perspective:http://thenextweb.com/

Have you come across any thought-provoking blogsor blog posts? Let us know by sending an e-mail to [email protected]

Mobile pay-ments get popular TRENDSwwMore than 48 percent of those ques-tioned in a Telia survey in Sweden say that theywill make more paymentsusing their mobile phones during the next two years. Almost 30 percent already want to be able to makefi nancial transactions regardless of where they are.

“The fact that so many people plan to use their mobile phones as wallets within the next two years suggests that users seethis as a natural step in thedevelopment of smart te-lephony,” says Ulrika Steg, Head of Mobility Services Sweden at Telia.

Social media voices

COMPETE AND WIN A PRIZE

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In mid-2010, Lena Ny-ström signed up for a project whereby volun-teer lifesavers are assig-ned cases via text mes-sage. A couple of months later, she was sent on her fi rst emergency call, to an elderly man whose heart had stopped.

HEALTH CAREwEarly one morning on a weekend in September 2010, an SOS Alarm Center received an emergency call from an apartment just a couple of hundred meters away from Nyström’s home in central Stockholm.

Cardiac arrest“I’d just set the table for breakfast, and I was eager to fi nd out who had sent me a text so early in the morning,” says Nyström, who works as a nurse at Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge, Stockholm.

The text notifi ed her that someone in her neighborhood had

suff ered a suspected cardiac arrest. Her mo-bile phone then rang. An automatic voice message confi rmed the informa-tion in the text and asked whether she was able to assist the patient.

“I answered ‘yes,’ threw on my clothes and ran out,” Nyström says. “On the street, I could hear the sirens in the distance. My pulse was running high, but I was completely focused.”

Upon arrival, Ny-ström was accompanied

into the apartment by a couple of police offi cers. Once inside, they were met by an elderly woman in despair. On the kit-chen fl oor lay a man who had no pulse and wasn’t breathing.

Follow up“One of the offi cers be-gan doing cardiopulmo-nary resuscitation, and I immediately started doing artifi cial respira-tion,” Nyström says. “In other words, we were trying to keep his

circulation going while we were waiting for the ambulance staff , who ar-rived right after we did.”

A short while after the emergency, Nyström received an e-mail from the group behind the lifesaving project, who wanted to follow up on her eff orts. However, she does not know what happened to the patient.“The medical records are confi dential, of course,” she says. “But I hope it turned out well.” ■ Michael Masoliver

Lena Nyström is one of more than 4,300 volunteers involved in Stockholm’s SMS Lifesaver project. Volunteers must be at least 18 and have training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

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We asked three partici-pants at the Ericsson Technology Council 2011: How can Ericsson work more closely with its customers?

▶ Tania Leppert, Business Unit Multimedia

“Ericsson must build relation-ships based on trust and

be perceived as a partner of choice capable of solving the customer’s problems. Trust is built by delivering on commitments, good-quality products and inno vative business-oriented solutions.”

▶ Helen Örtenblad, Business Unit Networks

“Tighter coop-eration between the regions and the

design units would give the regions active support and help – particularly in customer meetings and discussions. This would bring useful information from the customer into the design organization.”

▶ Maria Wirenmark, Business Unit Networks

“Involve the customers more in our R&D, so that we can really

understand what they want. Also, spend more time talking to the customers about all aspects – not only in the product dimension. For example, we could help them to understand how to confi gure their network for optimal usage.” ■ Benny Ritzén

Mobile networks locate lifesaversSMS-LIVRÄDDARE (SMS Life-saver) is an emergency service in Stockholm run by Södersjukhuset (Stockholm South General Hos-pital) and Karolinska Institutet. Its aim is to improve health-care providers’ chances of saving the lives of the approximately 900 patients who suff er cardiac ar-rests in Stockholm County every year. For every minute that goes by without lifesaving eff orts, a patient’s chance of survival falls

by 10 percent. LEKAB Communication Systems,

which is also one of the suppliers of Ericsson’s global SMS services, has made it technically possible to alert lifesavers located no more than 500m away from the patient.

“The position of each lifesaver is determined by analyzing the loca-tion data available in operators’ networks, based on the base station to which a mobile phone is connected,” Tomas Stark, Head of

Systems Design and Development at LEKAB says.

As soon as this information has been established, SOS Alarm forwards the alarm to the nearest lifesaver.

Since the project began in June 2010, volunteer lifesavers have been able to reach their destina-tion ahead of regular emergency staff on 120 out of a total of 300 occasions. Read more at: www.smslivraddare.se (in Swedish)

3HAVE THEIR SAY

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WRITE TO US: Who do you want us to interview, and why? E-mail [email protected]

Empowering women through technology

INTERVIEW: OREOLUWA SOMOLU

The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is a Nigerian non-governmental organization that aims to improve the situation of women and create equality in the ICT industry. Meet its founder, Oreoluwa Somolu.

W.TEC operates projects for girls and women to introduce them to computers and other information tools.

It’s mission is to educate, connect and empower Nigerian women by enabling their active engagement with ICT. Since the organization was founded in 2008, more than 1,000 women have participated in its programs and camps. For Somolu, the center represents much more than just a job.

When did you fi rst become involved with issues related to women and technology?

“My mother is an engineer, so gro-wing up I had already realized that very few women were working in the area of engineering and technology. When I was doing my master’s program, I read a lot about the fact that Nigerian women generally don’t even have the skills to use ICT tools. There is still a general belief that careers in science, technology and engineering are more suited to men. So I decided to set up something for young women.”

What made you choose ICT as a means to change the lives of women?

“In our modern world, ICT provi-des important tools that people use in their daily lives, in situations like online

shopping, gathering information and es-pecially for connecting to other people. If you don’t know how to use these tools,

you really get left behind. It’s like the world is in the 21st century, but you’re not really a part of it.”

How do you measure the impact of your organization’s work?

“We follow the women after they complete our programs, and some of them are now at university, studying science and technology-related degrees. One of the young women who attended our fi rst camp in 2008 is now studying medicine at university, and she is actually teaching other women there how to use computers and the internet. Another woman, who attended a course where we taught participants how to use social me-dia for activism and leadership-related activities, is now using tools like blogs, Facebook and Twitter in her work for

a civil society organization.”How does ICT support social change?“Recently, a campaign called

LightUpNigeria was held to address one of our country’s major challenges – a lack of electricity. It started with a discussion among young people in social media, which generated a series of de-monstrations in the capital, Lagos, and then articles published in newspapers. The campaign didn’t change the problem itself, but with the use of ICT tools it succeeded in raising the discussion to a higher level and engaging young people who normally don’t feel like they have a voice in Nigerian society.”

Would you say that the role of women in Nigeria has changed since you founded W.TEC?

“A little bit, but not just because of the work that we do. We only reach a small percentage of the women in Nigeria, but tools like social media are making technology more user-friendly and more aff ordable. There is also a generational divide – some older people are still un-comfortable using these tools. At W.TEC, we want to reach out to more women and girls than we do today, and we will do that in collaboration with other or-ganizations.” ■ Text: Anders Jinneklint Photo: Adolphus Opara

• Is the Executive Director of the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) in Nigeria. • Holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Essex in the UK and a Master’s degree in Analysis, Design and Management of Information Systems from the London School of Economics and Political Science. • Worked for several years at the Education Development Center, a non-profi t organization in the US, focusing on several projects that explored the interplay between gender and technology and which were designed to att ract more girls and women to study and work in science and technology-related fi elds.

OREOLUWA SOMOLU

“It’s like the world is in the 21st century, but you’re not really a part of it”

16 17

Diversity covers a range of things, including

background, culture, gender and age, all of

which are already featured at Ericsson. The

challenge now is simply to blend them well.

Under the surfaceDiversity in a work team doesn’t

have to mean that people of diff erent nationalities and educational backgrounds

have to work together under the same roof and brainstorm for days on end. Engagement Practice Managed Services at Region Northern Europe and Central Asia (RECA) is a good example of this.

Both men and women make up the workforce at RECA’s offi ces in Stock-holm, where six employees work, although the group otherwise seems remarkably homogenous in terms of ethnic origin and age. But appearances can be deceiving. Since the reorgani-zation in 2010, when Ericsson was divided into regions, Swedes, Danes, Finns, Norwegians, Russians and Ukrainians have been working closely together. Among the work team’s 25 permanent members, nine are women, and the age range of the team members is 20 to 50 years old.

“Our team is highly diverse,” says Christina Weckman, Regional Mana-ged Services Driver at RECA. “Apart

from diff erent nationalities and ages, we also have a variety of cultural and professional backgrounds. And we have several women in leading roles.”

The region’s six offi ces are located in Copenhagen, Helsinki, Kiev, Moscow, Oslo and Stockholm, but some of its employees meet almost daily in the virtual world. Representatives from the various offi ces also meet each other in person for customer meetings and to check how things are going.

Anna Palmgren, Head of Managed Services Sales Engagement at RECA’s offi ce in Stockholm, says that the dif-ferences among team members give the group the opportunity to get the best possible results.

“It’s about establishing the cust-omer’s trust,” she explains. “In addi-tion to understanding the technology and customer needs, we also require knowledge of customers’ cultures and their native language.”

During all recruitment proces-ses, diversity is one of the guiding principles, and that’s been the case since the work team was formed. ▶

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Nataliya Omelchuk, from Ukraine, left , converses with Anna Nabseth, Sweden, during the monthly meeting of Engagement Practi-ces Managed Services at Region Northern Europe and Central Asia.

18 19

ceeding in that, thanks to my previous work experience. It’s important to make sure everyone is involved in the entire process, from gathering infor-mation to the discussion phase, and especially during the decision-making process.”

Bina Chaurasia, Senior Vice Presi-dent, HR & Organization, has ultimate responsibility for ensuring that Erics-son gets the most out of the diversity it has in the company. To her, diversity is more than traditional parameters such as age and gender.

Program. At that time, he was the sales manager of a ferry company and had also been an owner of restaurants, dis-cos and entertainment events.

“At the time I didn’t know much about Ericsson, but I realized that the ma-nagement program would give me the opportunity to become a much better leader and that I would be able to work in an international environ-ment,” Rendbæk says. “I had guessed that my background would stand out at Ericsson, and it did.”

He calls himself an “all-around ma-naged services specialist,” but his main work task is to put together and lead work teams for various assignments that focus on engagement practices. This means that he works with a range of diff erent professionals: engineers, lawyers, economists and employee representatives. In these situations, his broad-ranging occupational back-ground is a major advantage.

“Being able to manage diff erent people with highly varied backgrounds and get the best out of them is truly an art,” Rendbæk says. “And I’m suc-

“I’ve defi nitely developed more

when I’ve worked in mixed teams ” Anna Palmgren

“A company can have a good gender balance and mix of nationalities, but if everyone thinks the same way, the com-pany doesn’t gain anything,” she says.

Chaurasia says that Ericsson takes a three-fold approach to achieving diversity.• “Get the tone right from the top,

with a diverse leadership team.”• Make diversity organic by building

it into systems and processes. “We are doing this globally with such processes as staffing and talent management.”

• Address unique diversity issues lo-cally.She says that while various global

diversity initiatives are underway, “lo-cal eff orts are also important because one size does not fi t all.” ■ Text: Benny Ritzén/David CallahanPhoto: Håkan Lindgren

▶ Footnote:Also read the interview with Bina Chaurasia on diversity on the Intranet: Global > News & Events >Ericsson Magazines > Contact Newsletter #1 2012.


Gina Aspelin, Specialist Sales Services, 27, Stockholm.

“Because I’ve recently worked at a couple of other engi-neering companies, what I learned is

still fresh in my mind. This pro-bably makes it easier for me to evaluate Ericsson. Are we doing things in the best way possible? When you’ve been working at a company for a long time, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut and continue with your usual ways of working. But for me, it may be a litt le easier to see where we need to improve and to challenge existing ways of thinking and working.”

Yekaterina Galitskaya, Sales Specialist, 30, Moscow.

“My degree in foreign languages and literature is very rare in telecom, so it does add diversity

to a team with a largely technical background. One advantage is that I can communicate eff ective-ly and focus discussions with the customer in a way that enables both parties to see an issue from diff erent angles. This approach has the eff ect of brain-rebooting, and is quite eff ective.”

Viktor Galenko, Managed Services Consultant, 38, Kiev.

“I have a technical background, and before I began at Ericsson I worked as a technical

project manager for MTS, one of Ukraine’s largest telecom operators. This background is my strength in a team where many have previously worked in sales and fi nance. Because I come from Ukraine, I also understand the mentality and business culture in CIS (Commonwealth of Indepen-dent States) countries, and I am more familiar with the complex local legislation.”

Yulia Gryukanova, Managed Ser-vices Consultant, 31, Moscow.

“I studied foreign languages at univer-sity, and worked as an editor and trans-lator before I joined

Ericsson. I worked in diff erent positions in the former market unit here. That experience, plus my wide-ranging knowledge of the company is my main contribu-tion to diversity. I also add my knowledge of the market and customers in Russia and the former Soviet Union states.”

We asked some of the members in the Engagement Practice Managed Service work group: How does your background add to diversity?

Bina Chaurasia,Senior VicePresident HR&Organization.

“We are often divided into smaller teams when we work, and to make sure we cover as many aspects of customer needs as we can, we need to recruit in a way that results in the best possible mix for our operations,” Weckman says.

“And we need to be able to respond to the needs of our customers’ own organizations, which are also highly diverse these days.”

Both Palmgren and Weckman are certain that diverse work teams result in higher profi ts.

“Based on my own experience, I know that you gain a broader perspective of your business and a better range of competencies,” Weckman says.

They’ve also noticed that customers appreciate their diverse work team. A good example is the case of a rela-tively recent deal in the Middle East.

“In that case, the broad-ranging, international composition of our team was defi nitely to our advantage,” Weckman says. “That was also why we succeeded in building such a good relationship with the customer.”

Weckman and Palmgren also say

that Ericsson’s diversity has made a big diff erence to their own careers.

“I’ve had the good fortune to have had managers who have believed in me,” Weckman says. “But I’ve also been one of the few women at my level, and I think we still have a way to go before men and women have equal opportunities for their careers at Ericsson.”

Palmgren agrees; she believes that women need to have other women as role models, just as men need male role models.

“That’s why it’s so important to have a good mix of men and women, and of various backgrounds and ex-periences,” she says. “I’ve defi nitely developed more when I’ve worked in mixed teams than when I’ve been in more homogenous groups.”

Jørgen Alsing is Head of Practice, Managed Services at RECA. Today he leads a highly diverse work team, but he also has experience of working in teams that aren’t very diverse at all. Before he took up his current posi-tion, he worked as a customer relations manager in Denmark.

“There were eight of us, all Danes

– one woman and seven middle-aged men, with technical or commercial backgrounds,” he says. “We tended to think in very similar ways.”

He mentions the complexity of managed services, where assignments can take a very long time to complete. During these projects, his team works with several parts of the customer’s organization. Everything from daily operations, sales and marketing to personnel and legal issues is involved. This means that a single member of the work team can have several roles during a given project.

“Under these circumstances, it’s very diffi cult to mobilize a group if it consists of fi ve people who are about the same age, of the same gender and with similar backgrounds,” Alsing says.

Above all, he is impressed by the wide range of backgrounds and experience in his own work team. A good example of this is Hans Rendbæk of Sales and Marketing at Business Unit Networks. Four years ago, with no telecom ex-perience, Rendbæk was accepted into Ericsson’s Accelerated Management

▶

“Local eff orts are also important

because one size does not fi t all” Bina Chaurasia

Did you know... that Rima Qureshi, head of Business Unit CDMA, is Ericsson’s fi rst female BU head? She entered her role in 2010. Source: Ericsson

Anna Palmgren, third from the left , believes that women need to have other women as role models, just as men need male

role models. Here she is in a meeting with, from left , Christina Weckman, Johan Nylund and Stefan Lindqvist.

20 21

The diverse staff at the Network Operations ControlCenter in Kansas contribute wide ranging skills,background and perspective to management of thecustomers’ networks. From left (back row) are: ArleesaBrown, Steven Elbert and Bill Pletcher. Seated are:Krishna Jyothi Boppana (left ) and Talia Bodine

> > > How Ericsson attracts young talents > > >


A good mixEricsson’s Network Operations Con-trol Center in Kansas City in the US is a melting pot of generations, cul-tures, technologies and experiences that combine to give the company a competitive edge in managing its customers’ growth.

Working closely with Global Network Operations Center (GNOC) facilities in the US, Canada,

Mexico and India to manage multiple networks with various technologies, the center is by its very nature a focal point for diversity.

Center Operations Director Ste-phanie Feiss says that, while cultural, age and gender diversity are clearly a plus, the NOCC employees’ diverse experience in technologies, education and career paths is what really raises the center’s overall eff ectiveness in identifying and resolving problems that arise in a variety of networks.

Recruits straight out of university or college, for example, are paired with seasoned veterans who are experts in their assigned technology or solution. “The new hires have training in the most up-to-date technology, and we work with them so they can build on that textbook knowledge,” Feiss says.

“We create a foundation for these young people to grow, and at the same time they bring a fresh perspective on the way we operate, which sometimes leads us to make improvements in our processes,” she says.

Feiss says that Center Operations leadership team puts a premium on fi nding well-rounded recruits.

“They look at job candidates’ tech-nology experience, the kind of career they have had, what kinds of compa-nies they have worked with, and their education,” she says.

The NOCC also builds diversity by encouraging technicians and engineers

to seek certifi cation and training in the latest technologies and trends. “That way, we maintain our self-suffi ciency and avoid becoming dependent on equipment vendors, which saves our customers money and helps us resolve network impairments faster.”

The center aims to take advantage of diverse expertise on a daily basis. Experts in a given product or tech-nology are routinely encouraged to work with their peers in another area to gain unique perspectives and in-sights on problems, Feiss says. Open forums are held each week to review major network outages, and leaders from diff erent technology areas swap ideas about how lessons learned can be applied across the board.

Employees often get the opportunity to work on-site in one of the center’s affi liated GNOC facilities. Network Control Manager Lisa Siard says that, at any given time, fi ve or more of the NOCC’s employees are working at partner centers in Mexico City or Noida, India, as well as in Las Ve-gas, in the US, on assignments lasting anywhere from a few weeks to a year or more.

“It helps us get to know the cultures in these centers a little better,” Siard says. “We have a lot of close contact with these centers, and having this fa-miliarity and ability to exchange ways of working really helps us improve the way we work together.” ■ Text: David Callahan Photo: Jason Dailey

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At the Network Operations Control Center in Kansas City, US, Steven Elbert (left ), Bill Pletcher and Talia Bodine apply their diverse experiences toward a common purpose.

SEND US YOUR SUGGESTIONS!Do you have a lot of diversity at your workplace? Write to us

with your comments at: [email protected]

22 23

The search for youthDeveloping new, young talents is crucial for a diverse workforce. One way Ericsson taps into the younger generation is through recruitment events on university campuses.

It’s 09.00 on day one of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE) careers fair. Overlooking the River Danube,

a constant stream of determined job seekers is fl owing through the campus entrance, down a series of steps, spilling into the exhibition area. Over 10,000 people are expected to attend the two-day event, making it the most popular careers fair in Hungary.

Students of technology, science, eco-nomics and fi nance, as well as recent graduates make up the majority of the attendees. The fair off ers a rare opportunity for these job seekers to meet with prospective employers. Most are here to network, but all are keen to secure employment with the best companies. Similarly, the exhibi-tors want to attract the most talented individuals.

At the Ericsson stand, Péter Orbán, R&D Line Manager, says most of today’s attendees are career-starters fresh from college.

“This is the most reputable technical university in Hungary,” he says. “We get to meet a lot of talented people and usually receive a lot of great app-lications, so this is one of my favorite careers fairs.”

One of the people at the careers fair who is keen to learn more about Ericsson is 22-year-old Márk Kovács. He is a fi nal-year Electrical Engineering stu-dent at BUTE and a trainee at National Instruments, a company specializing in the production of measurement cards and tools. After he has graduated, he wants to travel abroad to learn new languages and secure employment.

“I believe that countries with strong economies, such as Switzerland, Ger-many and even the US, have more job opportunities,” Kovács says. “So, I’m considering working abroad for a few years after graduation.”

Kovács says he has considered apply-ing for jobs at Ericsson after attending

a recent open day.“I enjoy working at National In-

struments, but I’m also interested in expanding my understanding and knowledge of networks,” he says. “I learned more about the company at an Ericsson R&D open day in Budapest.”

And Kovács says he is drawn to wor-king with international companies.

“Working in an environment where everybody thinks the same can beco-me stale,” he says. “Having a mix of people with diff erent backgrounds is important because it helps stimulate new ways of working and create new ideas.”

Another visitor to the Ericsson stand is 21-year-old Nikolett Nagy. The psychology graduate is completing a Diploma in Economics through a weekend distance-learning course at neighboring Corvinus University – also in Budapest.

“I fi nish my course next year and I’m here today to research these com-panies.

“My background in psychology and eco-nomics helps me understand how ▶


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Tamas Nemeth, Mechanical engineer

“Working with peo-ple from diff erent countries and

cultural backgrounds is important. I have a Hunga-rian outlook, for example, but working with diff erent people gives me an oppor-tunity to hear other views and a chance to expand on my own insights.”

Natacha Funkeu, Electri-cal engineering student

“Companies benefi t when they employ people with diff erent

backgrounds and lan-guage skills. Aft er all, we live in a world that is increasingly international, so companies need to be able to communicate and support customers in a variety of languages.”

Fanni Karpati, Architecture student

“Colleagues with diverse experiences and back-grounds

are likelier to have more unique ideas because they think diff erently and can come up with the unex-pected.”

Andras Nagy, Electrical engineering student

“Diversity of age is im-portant, for example, because

young people can learn from someone older. Elec-trical engineering, my area of studies, is something you cannot just learn in a classroom. Experience can only come aft er years of working with senior people.”

Boglarka Fekete, Dieti-cian at a wellness center

“Having a diverse role and working with a variety of people

are things I consider when applying for jobs. I benefi t from working with people who have diff erent ideas and points of view be-cause it helps me grow as a person.”

WHY IS DIVERSITY IMPORTANT?

22

Members of staff on the Ericsson stand, at Budapest University of Technology and Economics careers fair, inform Nikolett Nagy of the career opportunities within the company.

24 252525

Hans Vestberg, Ericsson President

and CEO .

Having been commended for his eff orts to enhance diversity throughout the company, Ericsson

President and CEO Hans Vestberg talks about the benefits and challenges associated with this concept.

Why do you believe it’s so important to foster diversity? Having lived in several countries and worked in a variety of environments, I’ve learned that if we work with people with diff erent backgrounds, it results in a much better decision-making process. There is no doubt that it gives us better opportunities to get 360-degree feedback on every-thing we do. You can compare this to a sports team, where you always need to make sure you have a group of diff erent talents coming together. The same is true when managers are leading an organization, no matter what size it is. For me, diversity is the key to making the best decisions and fi nding the right way forward.

What does diversity mean to you? When I’m recruiting, I make sure I incorporate all kinds of diversity into the process. I look at a person’s background and experience – meaning what skill set they bring with them, what type of person they are and what kind of background they have. So I take a broad view of what diversity means, and that has an impact on the way I put together a team. Ericsson needs people with diff erent types of competencies and backgrounds to achieve the right team dynamic; gender is just one part of the picture.

What are the challenges that come with diversity?It takes what I call adaptive leader-ship: an ability to listen to diff erent sorts of people. We all do things in diff erent ways and as managers at Ericsson we need to be curious about the people we’re leading and un-derstand where they’re coming from. And it’s essential to set very clear goals for each and every member of the team. Having a diverse team tends to be a challenge, but the output is so much greater if we manage things well. Have you succeeded in creating a diverse leadership group at Ericsson? I think this is just the beginning. In the management team we have a major responsi-bility and we need to lead by example. I think we can al-ways do better and do more to make sure we continuously apply diversity across borders, all around the world. We have seen the shift at the top level of our company’s leader-ship, but we can still get more out of our teams by focusing on diversity.■ Text: Sonora Ocampo Photo: Stefan Borgius

Diversity – worth the challenge

Hans Vestberg received the 2011 Mentor Award from the New York-based Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce on October 6 for his eff orts to enhance diversity throughout the company.

FACTS


Did you know... that the average age at Ericsson is 38 years and that 22 percent of all employ-ees working at Ericsson are women? Source: Ericsson

people think, communicate and resolve problems,” she says. “My goal is to work in HR for a multi national company. My background in psychology and econo-my helps me understand how people think, com-municate and solves pro-blems.”

Kimberly Bocian, Head of Global Talent Acquisition, is responsible for po-sitioning Ericsson as an attractive

employer. In her role, she focuses on three different demographics: the college market, mid-career hi-res, and executive hires. But since Ericsson promotes largely from within, there is a relatively small number of external hires for executive positions.

“We attend career fairs at universities throughout the world to communicate what Ericsson does, what we can off er as an employer, and to promote our job opportunities,” Bocian says. “Some of

the students we meet develop crea-tive solutions that help solve problems we’re working on at Ericsson, so we’re constantly at these events searching for the most talented individuals.”

Successful applicants often have in-novative backgrounds with experience working in a global organization.

“Our customers throughout the world have different needs,” Bo-cian says. “It is important we refl ect this diversity internally, so that we understand these needs better. We work collaboratively despite being dispersed geographically. Everyone’s input is important when working on innovative solutions. We are most in-terested in talented individuals who know how to work with a range of diff erent people.”

Another way for her to promote the company is via websites like glassdoor.com, where people can rate their em-ployers and place of work anonymous-ly. Ericsson employees have rated the company and its President and CEO Hans Vestberg extremely highly on the site.

“Our employees are our ambassa-dors, and many of them love working for Ericsson and we want to leverage on this so we continue to attract the best talent.” ■ Text: Jonathan Rothwell Photo: Per Myrehed

▶

Kimberly Bocian

SPANNING 16 countries with a variety of cultures, Region Western and Central Europe

(RWCE) is truly a melting pot of diversity. Neil Clark, Head of Talent Management & Acquisi-tion in the region, says RWCE embraces diversity as it helps to provides competitive advantage.

How has your work with diversi-ty progressed since the creation of RWCE 18 months ago?

We are only at the start of this journey, so it’s important to bear

in mind that there are no miracle ‘overnight’ solutions for impro-ving diversity - but the benefi ts are signifi cant.

Research has shown that the presence of female leadership, for example, correlates with higher short-term and long-term profi tability, increased custo-mer satisfaction and improved employee engagement.

What initiatives have you undertaken to help create an inclusive culture?

During 2011, a fl exible way of working was created to sup-

port a bett er work/life balance for all employees in Ericsson’s Netherlands offi ce. Since July 2011, RWCE has been driving young talent recruitment to bring in fresh minds and diversity of thought,. We are making good progress –50 percent of all our vacancies have been fi lled by young people.

What will happen this year?We will continue to raise aware-

ness about the importance of di-versity. Throughout 2012, we will focus on making RWCE a young, vibrant place to work, with a good

gender balance .In Ireland and Hungary, we will continue to work with educational institutions, taking a proactive approach to increase the diversity of technical graduates working for us. We also want to remove the gender as-pect from some commonly used but outdated Ericsson termino-logy, reducing the use of terms such as “grandfather approach,” which relates to gett ing a sign-off from your manager’s manager. It’s a small idea but we fi nd that lots of small steps add up to a great approach to diversity. ■ Jonathan Rothwell

REGION WESTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE FOCUSING ON AGE, GENDER

Márk Kovács (left ) and Nikolett Nagy were two among several hundred technology and economics students who visited the annual recruitment fair in Budapest. Both want to work for a major global company, and Ericsson is an att ractive option.

26 27

Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg brings Anders Stenkvist, Mobile Access Platforms Manager with Business Unit Networks, onstage in Las Vegas to demonstrate Connected Me, a solution that enables the human body to act as a trans-mitt er for connecting devices.

A cover photo of Ericsson Presi-dent and CEO Hans Vestberg

greets attendees at CES as they pick up copies of Vision magazine, the of-fi cial show publication. It is the opening day of the biggest event of its kind.

An estimated 153,000 visitors are here for the four-day event. All of them are industry pro-fessionals or members of the media (despite its name, the Consumer Elec-tronics Show is not open to the public).

Raising his voice above the din outside the Ericsson booth, Dwight Witherspoon, Director of Commu-nications Operations, explains that Ericsson is here to promote a vision of its own, and that Vestberg’s keynote will explain “how we are enabling a Networked Society.”

“There is no bigger stage for tech-nology companies,” Witherspoon says. “CES is a perfect place for us to introduce concepts like 50 billion con-nected devices.”

Outside of the telecom sector, notes Keith Shank, director of Ericsson Inn-ovation Labs, the Ericsson name is of-

ten confused with that of the former handset joint venture, Sony Ericsson. Thus, Ericsson had some assumptions to address. A conscious decision was made, he says, to situate the booth away from the telecommunications hall, and instead take a place among the likes of Intel, Microsoft and Samsung.

Shank acknowledges that the move was “scary.” Next door to Ericsson’s booth is sports network ESPN HD, which is reliably delivering the kind of dazzling entertainment that people have come to expect at CES. This is, after all, Las Vegas, so the exhibit featu-res dozens of giant screens. They even installed a full-size boxing ring in order to host an afternoon card of live bouts for 3D broadcast.

“When we saw what we were com-peting with, we were concerned we would be invisible,” Shank admits. But as the show got under way, the Ericsson event team’s misgivings were swept away by the unending stream of visitors coursing through Ericsson’s state-of-the-art cube-shaped exhibit, where the emphasis is less on techno-logy than on ideas.

Shank says that in designing the Er-icsson exhibit, typical telecom demos were ruled out in favor of showing ▶

Debut in Las Vegas

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW

With a show-stopping keynote and a strong emphasis on ideas, Ericsson’s debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) proved to be one exception to the saying “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”

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28 29

how a Networked Society will be fundamentally diff erent from what we see today. “Our presence is being used to explore how things and people will communicate in the near future,” Shank says. “We’re showing the Twit-tering Tree, Social Web of Things, Medical MashUp and Connected Me, all intertwined with the message that our view of communications is about to shift radically, and Ericsson is ready to lead the change.”

The media also took notice. There was a palpable buzz in the hall when Wired magazine led a tour through the Ericsson booth. And halfway through the week, the Wall Street Journal was eff used over Ericsson’s presentations: “There are demonstrations that are mildly interesting, some that are im-pressive and some that are startling. Ericsson has managed to reach the third level.”

In a town noted for its stage shows, Ericsson continues turning heads on the day of Vestberg’s keynote, but with-out resorting to the celebrity walk-ons so common during presentations at CES. Instead of parading the likes of American Idol host Ryan Seacrest and singer Justin Timberlake across the stage, Ericsson’s guests add gravitas to the proceedings. From Maersk Line’s President Michael White, to Refugees United cofounder Christopher Mik-kelsen and Professor Carlo Ratti of MIT’s (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s) SENSEable Cities Laboratory, each guest illustrates some facet of the Networked Society.

But perhaps none generates more internet buzz than Ericsson’s own Anders Stenkvist, manager, Mobile Access Platform who, with the help of Vestberg, performs a dramatic live demonstration of the Connected Me idea that he and an Ericsson team has been working on for just over two months.

After the keynote, the event-team members start to survey the audience, and Witherspoon later reports that the reaction was “overwhelmingly positive.” In fact, 90 percent of those surveyed said the keynote “enhanced” their understanding of Ericsson’s bu-siness off ering, and 98 percent agreed that Ericsson is a key enabler of the Networked Society.

The following day picks up the theme of entertainment and content and its place in the Networked Society. Kicking off a series of panels titled “En-tertainment Everywhere,” Vestberg

welcomes industry leaders such as Warner Bros. Television Group Pre-sident Bruce Rosenblum, and Simon Fleming-Wood, Chief Marketing Offi cer at Pandora. “Entertainment content will be one of the biggest parts of the Networked Society,” he tells a packed audience.

After the panel, moderator Brad Be-rens, Chief Content Offi cer at dmg: events and Senior Research Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for the Di-gital Future, says that by joining the discussion, his eyes had been opened to the importance of Ericsson.

“Ericsson is building the backbone upon which all of this change is hap-pening,” he said. “They create the ‘oxygen’ without which the ‘plants’ simply can’t grow, so they are abso-lutely crucial to how it is happening.

“The problem is, Ericsson is also largely invisible. It’s sort of like elec-tricity; until you plug something in and it doesn’t turn on, you don’t notice it.”

After this week in Vegas, it’s clear that Ericsson’s profi le will continue to rise as the world moves toward 50 billion connected devices, says Witherspoon. “We set out to intro-duce our brand to all the consumer electronics ecosystem players, and to a lot of other great companies. Based on the media and the measurements we took after the keynote and Entertain-ment Matters, it’s clear that people are leaving CES with a new and positive view of the Ericsson brand.”■ Text: Christine Luby/ David Callahan Photo: Mike Markovic

”Entertainment content will be one of the

biggest parts of the Networked Society.”Hans Vestberg

Two visitors examine a display in Ericsson’s booth, which was devoted to exploring how things and people will com-municate in the Networked Society.

▶

FOUR THINGS ERICSSON SHOWED AT CES 2012

The Twitt ering Tree att -racts a crowd in Ericsson’s

booth. Ericsson’s CES debut sets the stage for

the company to generate a higher profi le in the

devices ecosystem.

Did you know that... ... Since the fi rst CES in 1967, thousands of technologies and products have been introduced to the world at the event, from the VCR in 1970 to 3D HDTV in 2009. Source: CES

1. THE SOCIAL WEB OF THINGS

In a world of open web technologies people will be able to connect with objects – such as household devices – in order to understand and control them more easily. The social web of things will also allow objects to be “friends” and connect with

each other in order to work more eff ectively together.

2. TWITTERING TREE A real tree with

sensors that transmit information about any movement or changes within its electromagnetic fi eld. This information is sent to a processor in a

nearby laptop which then forwards the tree’s reac-tions to Twitt er and SMS. The Connected Tree made its debut at Mobile World Congress in 2010.

3. CONNECTED ME Capacity coupling

is an innovation that uses the body as a conductor

between a device with a receiver. Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg demonstrated the Con-nected Me solution at the 2012 International CES by transferring an image from a smartphone to a monitor simply by touching both devices.

4. CONNECTED HEALTCARE

This is about how health-care providers can use existing networks to provide live interactive video between, for example, a visiting nurse and a doctor who use voice, video and fi le transfer solutions to improve patient care.

31131313131313133131313133133133131313131313131331331131313133131131313131133333333311111311133133131313131313133131313111131313313313131313111313313133311133

Mexico City, 1982. Photo: Centre for Business History

30

Workers install fi ber-optic cabling on the outskirts of Mexico City in 1982. The fi rst AXE telephone ex-change in Mexico had become operational the previous year, which meant the start of a very suc-cessful AXE-sales period for the Erics-son-owned Mexican manufacturing com-pany Teleindustria Ericsson (TIM). This in turn led to a great demand for fi ber-optic cabling. The cables in the picture were produced by the former Ericsson company Sieverts Kabelverk, the name of which was changed to Ericsson Cables in 1985.Source: Centre for Business History

33

“We believe that all digital markets will grow.” These words comes from Sven

Richard Andersen, an expert on digital services, who works at the Consumer Council of Nor-way, focusing on issues such as privacy and copyright (he is now on a leave of absence so he can help address barriers to growth in the Norwegian ICT sector). He and Kostas Rossoglou, an intel-lectual property rights lawyer and senior legal offi cer at the European Consumers’ Organisa-tion, has been studying the digital market for many years.

Is piracy on the wane?Rossoglou: Yes. Until now, consumers have been forced to choose between content that is either accessible and illegal, or inaccessible and legal. But fortunately this is changing.

What evidence is there to support this?Andersen: During the past few years, the Nor-wegian copyright organization, Norwaco, has conducted annual surveys to determine how license fees should be redistributed to artists

and rights-holders. The fi ndings have been quite remarkable.

From 2008 to 2009, the number of illegal copies of digital music made fell dramatically. Norwaco calculated that 22,339 pieces of music were copied illegally every week in 2008. A year later, that number had plummeted to 13,538. In 2010, the number fell again.

What caused that? Rossoglou: Legal music streaming was made more accessible.

The music-streaming service Spotify, develo-ped in Sweden, was launched in 2008. By off ering both a subscription-based and a “free” service, Spotify provided an alternative to the legal and illegal downloading of single tracks or whole al-bums. In the beginning, most Spotify customers preferred the “free” subscriptions, which were paid for through advertising, but over time the number of paying subscribers has risen.

Andersen: It might be just a coincidence that illegal downloading decreased in 2009, but a continuous decline was confi rmed by Norwaco’s survey in 2010. In addition, sales statistics from the Norwegian branch of the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) show that, by the fi rst quarter of 2011, the total value of the digital market for music had surpassed

that of the physical market. Norway’s Perfor-ming Rights Society, TONO, then announced in December 2011 that its income was back to a 2005 level, and that it was making money. This means that income from new, legal services is compensating for the decline in CD sales.

Where have you seen the most growth?Andersen: It’s in subscription-based music services. From June 2010 to June 2011, the total value of digital-music service subscriptions grew by 584 percent in Norway. Signifi cant growth in the value of purchased streams and legal downloads was also recorded.

According to IFPI Norway, there is now, for the fi rst time, a reason to feel optimistic about the digital market. The industry is still losing reve-nue to the illegal downloaders, but the strea-ming services seem to be curbing the piracy.

What do other similar industries look like? Are they having the same problems when it comes to curbing piracy? Rossoglou: The movie and TV businesses will probably experience many of the same pro-blems the music industry has suff ered since the introduction of the fi rst fi le-sharing site for music, Napster, in 1999. Increasing bandwidth and growing computer literacy will make more

Fighting piracy the smart waySince the dawn of digital content, rights-holders and artists have been fi ghting a losing battle against online piracy. But two experts say that the tide may fi nally be turning.

▶

32

Sven Richard Andersen

Kostas Rossoglou

Tune in to our global internal portal

for the latest news and views on

Ericsson and the ICT community.

internal.ericsson.com

contactonline– global internal news

consumers willing and able to search for fi lm and TV content online.

Basing forecasts of future revenue on de-velopments in the retail-based DVD market will probably be futile, judging by experiences from the music business. The case of Spotify, as well as similar services such as Deezer (France), Wimp (Norway) and Last.fm (UK), shows that the way culture is consumed has changed. Business models should be based on demand from end users and on an understanding of what is technically feasible – not on a desire to main-tain existing models.

Andersen: As for the book industry, a severe restructuring of the business is underway. Amazon’s digital-book sales surpassed its sales of physical books in the second quarter of 2011. Coming up with att ractive, legal off e-rings allowed Amazon and the No.1 US book retailer Barnes & Noble to become dominant when the market moved online.

What about the video-game industry?Rossoglou: The video-game industry has batt led piracy since the late 1980s. In many respects, it

was hit harder and earlier than the other indu-stries. Still, the industry has continued to grow ever since.

Andersen: We believe its success has been lar-gely due to its willingness to provide reasonable business models and accompanying solutions for digital-rights management with a fair trade-off regarding limitations for use, access to extra material for legitimate gamers, and att ractive legal off erings.

The success of the online-game service Steam proves that people are willing to pay for content online. Yes, gamers could proba-bly download a free, pirated version of a game from a fi le-sharing site, but many choose to pay. Steam reportedly has a 70 percent share of a USD 4 billion market.

Rossoglou: From time to time, consumers have opposed new measures that they fi nd in-trusive. For example, gamers have protested loudly against continuous connected verifi ca-tion for games that can be played offl ine. This suggests that consumers are willing to accept measures to limit piracy – as long as the mea-sures are reasonable.

What does the future look like for artists and rights-holders?Rossoglou: Almost everyone understands rights-holders’ interest in gett ing a return on their invested time, money or talent. But at the same time, no one likes to draw the short straw every single time.

Digitalization creates an excellent distri-bution channel for most artistic or cultural products, but merely having an opportu-nity does not guarantee success. Content providers, rights-holders and creators need to listen to what end users want.

Andersen: We believe that all digital mar-kets will grow. We believe that end users are willing to pay for good, legal alternatives. But the off erings have to be att ractive enough for those who are paying. And they have to be eff ective.

■ Text: David Callahan/Sophie Bennett Illustration: Ebba Berggren

▶

34

“The movie and TV businesses will probably experience many of the same problems the music industry has suff ered” Kostas Rossoglou

Footnote: This is an abridged version of an article published in Ericsson Business Review (issue 3, 2011).

36

This communica-tions corporation is headquartered in Libertyville, Illinois.

BusinessWhich company?

It began trading as an independent company on the NYSE on January 4, 2011.

The company pione-ered the flip phone in the mid-1990s.

In August 2011, Google announced that it had agreed to acquire the company.

The company laun-ched the Droid smartphone.

5 pointsSubject / Points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Instructions: Read the subject category and question. Start with the fi ve-point question and continue to the right until you have an answer. When you have gone through all six categories and guessed a year for the picture below, calculate your total score and compare it with the maximum tally, which is 35.

He was born and raised on a farm in central Nebraska.

TelecomWhich person?

His name is the same as a brand of whiskey bottled in Bardstown, Kentucky.

Facebook tried to acquire his website for USD 500 million, though the offer was rejected.

His companies created two of the top 10 websites on the internet.

He was the former CEO and is the co-founder of Twitter.

From 1427-1530, this country was part of the Kingdom of Aragon.

GeographyWhich country?

Melita is the nameof one of the republic’s telecom-munications com-panies.

It has been governed by President George Abela since 2009.

The country has been a member of the EU since 2004.

The capital in this country is Valetta.

America Online an-nounces an agre-ement to purcha-se Time Warner for USD 162 billion.

History Which year?

The population of India officially passes the 1 billion mark.

Tiger Woods be-comes the young-est player to win a Grand Slam in golf.

Ericsson Response is founded.

The Summer Olym-pic Games open in Sydney, Australia.

Opera Software provided the client frame work for host-ing and management of the applications.

TechnologyWhich service delivery platform?

The model is based on a three-way revenue share agreement.

It is for service providers only.

Features and fun-ctionality evolve on a continuous basis.

Ericsson launched this store at the 2010 Mobile World Congress.

The objective is to score points through tries, goals and field goals.

SportWhich sport?

It is a full-contact sport played by two teams of 15 players.

The New Zealand team performs the Haka before every game to intimidate opposition players.

The 2011 World Cup was played in New Zealand.

New Zealand are the reigning world champions.

The pictureWhich year was this photo taken?5 points for the right year4 points for the year +/- 1 year3 points for the year +/- 2 years2 points for the year +/- 3 years 1 point for the year +/- 5 years

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Business: Motorola Mobility Telecom: Evan Williams Geography: Malta. History: 2000. Technology: eStore. Sport: Rugby. What year (photo): 1895, Bicycle Club of Ericsson, Stockholm, Sweden.

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